20,000 Students Experience Korean Culture, K-pop at Korean Culture Caravan

Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines (KCC), with the aim of expanding the Filipinos understanding on Korea and Korean culture, visited seven public high schools that are currently and will soon implement Department of Education’s Special Program in Foreign Language-Korea (DepEd SPFL-Korea) for a Korean Culture Caravan.

The Korean Culture Caravan is organized to bring the Korean culture to institutions to generate awareness on Korea’s rich culture through events and activities.

In the caravan, KCC prepared several activities such as film and documentary screenings, Korean traditional painting class (Sagunja & Mooninhwa), K-pop Dance class and cooking demonstrations for the participants. A Hanbok or the Korean traditional clothes wearing experience booth is available for the students and faculty members to try.

To know more about Korea and Korean culture, KCC Director LEE Jincheol prepared a short lecture about Korea for the students. Aside from this, KCC also invited several K-pop cover singers and dancers to entertain the crowd. The performers are the winners of KCC’s annual K-pop talent search “2018 Pinoy K-pop Star” and ShowBT’s Filipino K-pop idol group SB19. 

"It's very important to showcase both Filipino and Korean cultures in this caravan. We hope that through this caravan, Filipino youth will also be inspired to create events that will showcase their own culture also,” said Director LEE. During the main program, students of each SPFL-Korea schools showcase Filipino traditional performances and songs.

Director LEE also mentioned the moving speech of the popular K-pop idol group BTS during the United Nation’s launch of “Generation Unlimited” campaign. “True love first begins with loving yourself,” Director LEE quoted. “To love other country’s culture, we must first love our own culture and language. As the director of Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines, I wish for the Korean culture, Hallyu and Korean language be one of the most favorable culture and foreign language next to the Filipino culture and language here in the country,” LEE added.

Since 2012, KCC has visited 38 institutions to help spread awareness of the Korean culture here in the Philippines. It is the first time for the KCC to host a Korean Culture Caravan in public high schools. This project is made possible through the implementation of the SPFL-Korea program. A total of 20,000 students participated in the different activities that KCC offered during the caravan in SPFL-Korea public high schools. 

Last June 2017, the Korean government and the DepEd formally signed an agreement that will allow teaching the Korean language in public high schools through the Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL).

From September 21 to December 7, Korean Culture Caravan visited the Kalayaan National High School (September 21), Las Piñas National High School (October 12), Boot National High School (October 19), Tanza National Comprehensive High School (November 9), Pasay City National Science High School (November 16), Gov. Feliciano Leviste Memorial National High School (November 23) and Maligaya High School (December 7).

PHOTOS:

Director LEE Jincheol gives lecture to the public high school students during the Korean Culture Caravan.

Students of the Pasay City Science National High School watch K-pop performances of the 2018 Pinoy K-pop Star Vocal and Performance winners.

Students of the Sagunja (traditional Korean painting) pose with their respective outputs. Traditional Korean painting class is one of the activities that KCC is preparing during Korean Culture Caravan

Students are lining up to wear the traditional clothing Hanbok and to get a chance to win raffle prizes such as K-pop DVDs and Korean learning books at KCC booth.

Korean cooking demonstrations are also prepared for the students to know first-hand on how to prepare Korean dishes.

Korean Culture Caravan also offers K-pop dance classes to the students.